


Smoke and Sound

by MamaFriesmeal



Category: Kamen Rider W (Double)
Genre: F/M, Maybe three or four years before canon starts?, Pastfic, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-07
Updated: 2015-06-07
Packaged: 2018-04-03 06:03:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4089748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MamaFriesmeal/pseuds/MamaFriesmeal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soukichi and Shroud have a rough evening, but being together makes it a little less rough.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smoke and Sound

The agency closed for the day, and the quiet evening routine began for Narumi Soukichi and his old, dear friend. Long quiet moments passed between small comments between the detective and his partner. He’d noted that her hair had started growing out and asked if she wanted to dye it again. Shroud shook her head, saying that once it was long enough, she’d cut off the length they had dyed when she had first arrived. For the briefest of moments after her answer Shroud had sworn she’d seen a smile on Soukichi’s face as he’d worked on dinner, but if she had it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. She had been about to ask if he’d help her cut it when the time came but was interrupted by the walls shaking, and then the sound of an explosion. Shroud dropped the paper he had been reading and they both quickly moved to the window next to Soukichi’s desk. Smoke rose beyond nearby buildings and the sounds of sirens began to break through the quiet twilight as day slid into night.

After several beats of the wailing sirens drawing closer, Soukichi let out a heavy sigh and turned away from the window to sink into his desk chair. Shroud looked back at him before crossing the few steps to his desk, resting her hip against it. “Soukichi…” He brought up a hand to stop her. She sighed and looked back to the window, “You can’t keep blaming yourself for what he did as Spider.” She spoke it anyway, in spite of his gesture for her to refrain, as she continued to watch the smoke rise for a bit, waiting for an answer that didn’t come.

When Shroud turned to face him, Soukichi was staring helplessly up at her. It was so rare for him to look helpless like that. It caused an ache in her chest that she loathed, and she wondered if Soukichi felt the same ache in the times when she broke down. Had he felt it on the rainy night she had appeared on his doorstep?

“There’s no way, Fumine?” She caught herself from correcting him on her name. It was instinctual, and with the way she had become distracted by her own thoughts it had nearly slipped out. This wasn’t the time though, and even she knew that. Just this once, she would let it slide. Shroud looked back to the window, to the smoke still rising in the distance. She shook her head, reaching over to place her hand over Soukichi’s on the desk. “If the effect wasn’t reversed by destroying the memory, I’m not sure what to do.”

Shroud could feel it moving under his skin, the spider that had embedded itself in Soukichi that day. It pressed against her fingers as if something had fooled it into thinking she was the proper target and that it could break through to her and kill her. There was a time when she very well may have been, but Shroud knew that it had long since passed. Soukichi pulled his hand away, not looking at her now; she assumed he had felt it too. Shroud sighed and stepped away from the desk. “Do you want coffee?” she asked softly, and received no response. She went to the small kitchenette and began to make coffee anyway. Soukichi, even under the best of circumstances, was completely incapable of making it and she had high hopes that it would soothe them both.  
As Shroud set the cup on his desk she heard Soukichi’s voice, surely mumbling to himself rather than her, as he continued to stare at the smoke through the window. “Another sin for me to count.”

“I bet the damned raccoon never counted it’s sins.”

It wasn’t until after it came out that Shroud realized the comment, laced deep with sarcasm, was inappropriate. It had come out instinctively, the product of forty years of banter between them. She froze, her own coffee still in hand, as Soukichi turned from the window to look at her. For just a moment his expression was more unreadable than hers, and Shroud felt herself panic. She took a step back, then started to turn away to retreat to the garage when the sound hit her. It had become such an unfamiliar sound in the months, the years, since they had fought the Spider Dopant -- Soukichi laughed.

Shroud stood frozen by his laughter, confused by the unexpected reaction. Soukichi stepped to her and took the coffee from her hands to set on his desk before taking her masked face in his hands and pressing his forehead to hers. “I can’t believe you still remember that, Fumine.” Soukichi murmured.

Shroud sighed heavily, finally relaxing, “How could I forget? We’re lucky we didn’t both get rabies.” She placed a hand over one of Soukichi’s, grateful somewhat that he couldn’t see her smiling. She was sure though that he knew she was. Soukichi knew her well enough to hear it on her voice. She stepped back, taking his coffee and placing it in his hands before picking up her own and crossing the agency to n on the radio. She stood with her coffee as the voice of her younger daughter came from the speaker. Soukichi took his coffee and crossed the room to stand beside his partner, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.  
This was a common occurrence, standing in front of the radio, listening to the voice of a young woman relay the city’s gossip. In the years that had passed, Shroud had been able to pick out every nuance that had changed in her daughter’s voice, but they both knew that the girl on the other end of that line was all but a stranger. Narumi knew that fact broke his partner’s heart.Soukichi held out hope that one day Shroud would find a way to reverse what Spider had done, and that he would be able to fulfill his promise to Akiko. He believed that she would; Fumine had never once let him down. But no matter what, he knew Shroud had no faith in closing the gap between she and her daughters. All he could do was keep working toward bringing Raito back to her. If he could do at least that much…

Shroud stepped away, setting her coffee down on the coffee table and taking a seat on the couch. Soukichi watched her until she had settled and then sat beside her. “We’re a mess, aren’t we?” Shroud spoke, tilting her head back to stare up at the ceiling. Soukichi followed her gaze as they looked off toward nothing at all.

“But we’re alive.” He responded with a small smile., reaching over to take her hand. Shroud squeezed it tightly.

“Yes. Yes we are.”


End file.
